Senator to Block DefSec Nominee Until Panetta Testifies on Benghazi

"Hillary Clinton got away with murder."

Daniel Halper

January 29, 2013 7:56 AM

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pledged last night on Fox News to block President Obama's secretary of defense nominee, Chuck Hagel, until Leon Panetta testifies on the Benghazi terror attack:

"All right, Senator Hagel has been nominated by the president for secretary of defense. How are you going to vote on that one?" Fox host Greta Van Susteren asked Graham.

"It will depend on what he says on the hearing Thursday. But the one thing I'm not going to do is vote on a new secretary of defense until the old secretary of defense, Leon Panetta, who I like very much, testifies about what happened in Benghazi," said Graham.

"I haven't forgotten about Benghazi. Hillary Clinton got away with murder, in my view. She said they had a clear-eyed view of the threats. How could you have a clear-eyed of the threats in Benghazi when you didn't know about the ambassador's cable coming back from Libya?"

"Well, you guys had 10 hours with her! I mean, 10 hours," said Van Susteren.

"Well, all I can say is, you know, our guys tried to ask questions. She is very good on her feet, deflecting these questions. But she said two things that will come back to haunt her, that they had a clear-eyed assessment of the threats in Libya and that they had close contact with the Libyan government. I don't believe either one of them," said Graham.

The host later asked, "Is Secretary Panetta going to testify?"

"Well, I'm not going to -- I'm going to block Hagel from going forward until he does," Graham replied.